Congratulations to our very own Dick Stabell for being inducted to the Rice University Hall of Fame.
Our district conference was held this year in Fortworth, Texas, it was a great event an our very own Sonya heath was a co chair in charge of putting together a great event.
Our district governor Mindi Snyder recognized clubs and individuals during the awards ceremony and I was honored to be recognized as rotarian of the year. Our club president Mitchell Lou was awarded his major donor level 2 award during the major donors breakfast. Heather Rimato was presented as our district governor elect and NancyAnderson as our district governor nominee, Jim Moers was presented as our incoming president.
The University Area Rotary Club lead the preparation of Thanksgiving meals at Saint Paul's United Methodist Church in the museum district. We were joined by 100's of volunteers from the community. This year we prepared 2,700 meals and delivered them to folks in the Third and Fifth Wards and shut-ins who cannot afford the costs of Thanksgiving dinner.
Houston welcomed Rotarians from all over the world to this year's International Convention. Many of our club members volunteered with the Houston Organization Committee. We were a big help. A lot of us worked in the International House of Friendship where Rotary Clubs and vendors displayed their projects and Rotary theme goods. On Tuesday our club hosted over 52 out of town/country Rotarians at the New Magnolia Brewery for BBQ, beer, line dancing ( thanks to Bill Sharber ) and great Rotary fellowship. After the evening was over special custom Rotary Club caps were given to all our guest as a memento of the evening and the 2022 convention. The presentations at the George Brown Convention Center were enlightening and informational. Since Rotary had the whole center we could get 10,000 steps in a day without really trying. Many thanks go out to our members who helped make the events successful. Especially our fearless leader President Larry Blair! ( Larry gets at least 1000 "Atta Boy's" )
Saturday was a great day to install flags for Memorial day! Thank you to all the teams that got it done. Some started on Friday and showed up again on Saturday. The flag program is our clubs main fundraiser and what makes it possible for our club to do all the projects that we do.
An interact club has been formed at the Young Women's College Preparatory Academy. This has been accomplished by the hard work of President Larry, other members of our Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of West U. This is one of the largest Interact clubs in the Houston area and we are very proud to help sponsor them. On Thursday April 28 the Interact Club was honored by the visit of Rotarian Sylvia Whitlock who was the first woman allowed in Rotary in the mid 80's. Her story was entertaining and insightful to the young ladies in the audience, District Governor Michelle Bohreer presented Sylvia with a token of appreciation. Pictures were taken with the ladies. It was a successful event.
Our Rotary Club along with a few of our nurses help sort cans at the massive Houston Food Bank (HFB). The HFB distributes food and other essentials to over 1.1 million people in 18 Texas counties with the help of 1,500 community partners. Everyone started the morning with a temperature check. After all the groups arrived there was an informative presentation about the HFB organization and instructions on how to proceed with the morning's activities. Hand washing is a must coming in and out. All cans had to be sorted and placed in the proper boxes. We assembled outgoing food boxes and flattened the empty supply boxes. Everyone enjoyed the fellowship and the benefit to all concerned. The HFB is genuinely a fantastic organization and our Rotary Club was proud to help.
Saturday was Operation Turkey at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church at in the museum district. We worked in the Jones building and helped assemble 2,700 meals for our fellow Houstonians in need and distributed them on Thanksgiving morning. The Houston effort was led by the Greater Houston Rotary Club Veterans. We opened hundreds of large vegetable cans donated by GOYA and put the contents into individual containers. Great banter and fellowship was had by all. Our club President Larry Blair did a fine job of seeing the project to completion.
Once again our club partnered with the West U Rotary Club and other clubs in our district to help package food to be sent out to people in need. Our club donated $2,000.00 to help cover the cost of the food. Thank you to all the club members who participated in this project; President Larry Blair and his granddaughter, Bill Sharber, Dick Stabell, Gerry Rein, Sonya Heath, Cheryl Bressler, Richard Lazear and wife, my friend Jack Enright, my wife Olga and our two nephews Arnold and Jonathan .
The total number of meals packed was 13,128. Thanks to all of club members who donate to our club and our foundation and contribute their time and sweat to our flag program thus making it possible for us to be able to do projects to help those in need.
The total number of meals packed was 13,128. Thanks to all of club members who donate to our club and our foundation and contribute their time and sweat to our flag program thus making it possible for us to be able to do projects to help those in need.
If you want to see how the efforts between the Houston area Rotarians and the Matamoras area Rotarians are doing and how they benefit people please watch this video. CLICK HERE. You will feel pride being part of a organization that really cares!
The generous people at The Awty International School donated hundreds of desk and chairs for those children in Mexico who have none. It was up to Rotarian Art Bautista to assemble amigos from our club as well as some from other clubs to meet at Awty and load the donations into trucks and trailers, then on to Art's business to meet an eighteen wheeler donated by the world's only all women's Rotary Club-The Rotary Club of Matamoros. The work started at 8:00 and finished at 4:00. It was hard work and made for great fellowship. The day had many hick ups from the eighteen wheeler and Art's truck being stuck in mud to rain to cool everybody off, however in the end everything worked out and the big truck is on its way to deliver the donation.
School UniformsRotarians are People of Action. Art Bautista loves how rotary works! He received a call from his good friend Charlie Buscemi from the Kingwood Club who informed him that he was contacted by Laura Valladares from the St. Mary Magdalene Catholic School in Humble, that they had over 500 sets of school uniforms and he wanted to know if our club wanted them for the schools in Matamoros. There was a little condition and that was that the uniforms had to be picked up ASAP. Art made a few phone calls and Larry Blair and Gerry Rein stepped up to help load up. On Friday morning they met Charlie, his wife Tommie and Brad Jude at the school and they loaded up more like 1000 uniforms. Some of them were brand new; they still had the stickers on them. With the collaboration of 3 clubs in two different districts we will provide close to, if not more than 1000 children with school uniforms. Art was glad that he was contacted and that we were able to save all of these uniforms from ending up in the landfill. True Service Above Self!
Thank you to all those who came out to help load and unload the chairs. Especially to Dick Stabell for going to pick up and drop off the extra trailer that we borrowed from the Houston Tool Bank; thanks to Erika! There are probably over 500 chairs; some look brand new and we were told that the school paid $198.00 each. We are very grateful to Awty Academy for all of their donations.
What a wonderful day for our bike ride, the sky was clear there was a constant breeze, perfect temperature,. We were greeted by our host & ride guide Clark and his wife, who had coffee & donuts ready for all we had a great turnout 42 people attended, most of us did the 12 mile bike ride and some did the short bike ride.
The Rotary Club of University Area believes in the vaccine and starting in April has Thursday group social hours.
All attendees were vaccinated! We toasted to everyone's continued recovery. Get your vaccine and you can attend.
Kirby Ice House
Hungry's in Rice Village
ROTARIANS PRESENT NURSES SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS EVEN DURING COVID-19
Rotarians Cheryl Bressler and Larry Blair present nurse scholarship awards to 4 outstanding nursing students. Nurses are in high demand and our Rotary Club is proud to be of assistance to these fine young women. We wish them the best on their future careers.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Our Rotary Club is fortunate to be increasing our membership with quality new young members.
Ciro Jimenez, Larry Blair, and Cheryl Bressler welcome the new Rotarians.
The Rotary Club of University Area is proud to be people of action. By standing by Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self" we are people of action, helping others. Watch the video and see how you can enjoy being involved.
The Rotary Club of University Area Houston's flag program started in the spring of 2007, has been well received. Our Rotary Club places both American and Texas flags in the front yards of our subscribers and while having a beautiful flag in their yards on four patriotic holidays, our subscribers also benefit by helping our Rotary Club raise funds for our various charitable activities. Please click on the HOLIDAY FLAG PROGRAM to go to our special flag website where you can use your credit card when ordering your flags and read about our various charitable programs. (Note--Funds are payable to The University Area Rotary Foundation-a 501(c)3 charitable foundation.) To sign up on line or download a PDF form (CLICK HERE >>FLAG SUBSCRIPTION FORM. We appreciate your participation!
ROTARY IN THE HOUSTON AREA DISTRICT HAS TEAMED UP WITH DISASTER AID USA-COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM. We have secured a number of volunteers to help pick-up and deliver groceries and medications to high-risk persons in the district. If you are interested in helping please click on https://youtu.be/KMrNu1VYXOo for information on how to sign up. This is "SERVICE ABOVE SELF".
We had a large turn out the morning of February 8, 2020, at Loaves & Fishes where we served breakfast to 295 homeless people. We had good club participation as well as some of our nurse scholarship recipients. The kitchen crew did an outstanding job cooking the meals while the rest of the volunteers hosted and served the homeless. It was BENEFICIAL to all concerned.
Thanks to all of the club members who helped with loading, delivering and unloading in Brownsville. We delivered approximately 300 desks, chairs, Spanish books. hundreds of school uniforms and firefighters equipment, such as jackets, pants, boots and oxygen tank sets..
Thanks to our club Rotarian's, Rotarian's from District 5890 and friends who sponsored wheel
chairs, we were able to donate 55 wheel chairs and deliver 6,400 bilingual books. Thanks to
PDG Eric Liu, his wife Sandra, Dick Stabell, and especially Art Bautista (who organized this donation) & his wife Olga for joining this trip.
.png)
